Travelling eastward to continental Europe, we find the countries of France, Germany, Luxembourg, Russia, Turkey, Denmark, Italy, etc, all very different in many ways. While much of Europe speaks Indo-European languages, this category can be broken down into scores of related languages, ranging from Russian to Slavic, Italian to French, Germanic to Latin. Europeans speaking these languages do not share a common linguistic understanding.

In terms of government, while the European Union maintains its criterion of member states having to have a democratic government, this is not the case throughout all of Europe. While Western and Central European governments have democracies – such as Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands – this is not the case in Eastern Europe and Balkan countries, including Belarus, Ukraine, and Serbia.

Religion in Europe is also diverse in character. Russia contains a significant number of practising Russian Orthodox faithful; France has a growing number of Muslim adherents, owing to immigration from Islamic countries; Turkey is primarily a Sunni-Muslim country; and countries such as Austria and Poland have large numbers of practising Catholics. Religion in Europe is as diverse as it is throughout the whole of the rest of the world.

Europe’s cuisine, similarly, covers a diverse range of foods. While potatoes, bread, and eggs are staple fare in Russia, the Maltese love patizzi, the Italians eat pasta, the Hungarians eat goulash, and the Bulgarians eat a lot of yoghurt.

While it actually entails a culturally diverse grouping of foods, it is very distinguishable from, say, Asian cuisine or Middle-Eastern cuisine. Europe itself, as a continent of over 50 nations with peoples speaking scores of different languages and practising different religions, is a culturally diverse grouping of countries that differ greatly one from the other in many ways; they also share much in common.

European cuisine can be divided into four sub-groups: Western European – of which Belgian, French, German, and Swiss are a part; Central and Eastern European cuisines – including Hungarian, Jewish, Polish, and Ukrainian; Northern European cuisines – of which Danish, Irish, and British, are a part; and Southern European cuisines – including Greek, Italian, and Spanish.

In general, beef or other red meats are a common food across Europe. Wheat-flour is a common base for starchy foods, as is the humble potato. In addition, dairy products are used in abundance in European countries. Apart from these similarities, European cuisine ranges in style, depending on the country, region, or nationality. In France, they prefer “nouvelle cuisine,” which entails brief cooking times for meat, fish, and green vegetables, as well as short, uncomplicated menus with dishes being presented in an artistic format. This is in contrast to the lavish banquets so common to France of yesteryear. In Hungary, they favour meat stews or goulash, as well as soups and pastries. In Denmark, traditional fare entails barley, potatoes, rye, and beetroot, while in Turkey, common foods would include kebabs and corn.